Governors Briefs: New Legislation Addresses Housing, Working Families, Californians with Disabilities and Online Stolen Goods

California to Build More Housing, Faster

SAN FRANCISCO — Building on California’s historic efforts to tackle the housing crisis, Governor Gavin Newsom Sept. 27 signed legislation to streamline the housing approval process in California and create thousands of good paying jobs. Gov. Newsom also announced $1 billion in awards to 30 shovel-ready projects through the California Housing Accelerator — creating 2,755 new homes for Californians.

AB 2011 by Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and SB 6 by Senator Anna Caballero (D-Merced) together will:

• Help create much-needed new housing units for low and middle income Californians by allowing housing to be built in underutilized commercial sites currently zoned for retail, office, and parking uses.
• Generate thousands of jobs with health benefits and good wages – and encourage apprenticeships.
• Increase use of public transit by building housing near existing transit or near corridors

The Governor also announced that the Department of Housing and Community Development is awarding $1.02 billion in funding for the second round of the California Housing Accelerator, providing funding to 30 shovel-ready projects whose financing has been stalled because they have been unable to obtain tax credits. These new awards will help get construction underway quickly for 2,755 new housing units throughout the state. To date, $1.9 billion in funding for the California Housing Accelerator has been awarded, supporting a total of 57 projects to produce a total of 5,071 units. The vast majority of these units will be for extremely low to very low-income households and unhoused residents, and will provide affordable homes for seniors, families, transitional-age youth, veterans, people with disabilities, essential workers and unhoused individuals.

California Expands Support for Working Families

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom Sept. 30 signed legislation to help Californians access family and disability leave benefits. SB 951 by Senator María Elena Durazo (D-Los Angeles) will boost leave benefits for lower- and middle-income employees to cover more of their regular income while they take much-needed time off to care for loved ones.

SB 951 extends increased wage replacement rates for State Disability Insurance and Paid Family Leave that were set to sunset at the end of the year. Under the legislation’s phased increase in benefits, by 2025, workers earning less than the state’s average wage could receive up to 90% of their regular wages while taking leave.

SB 951 builds on the Governor’s action since taking office to bolster access to workplace leave, including legislation to expand job-protected family leave to millions more Californians, extend paid family leave benefits for a newborn child from six to eight weeks and expand paid sick leave in response to COVID-19.

State to Protect Civil Rights, Support Community Living for Californians with Disabilities 

SACRAMENTO — Gov. Gavin Newsom Sept. 30 signed AB 1663 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein, which reforms California’s probate conservatorship system to enable disabled and older people needing support to care for themselves to pursue supported decision-making as a less restrictive alternative to conservatorship. The bill also makes it easier to end a conservatorship.

AB 1663 establishes supported decision-making in statute as an alternative to probate conservatorship. This is a process in which adults with intellectual, developmental, dementia, and other disabilities who need support to care for themselves or their finances can consult with trusted supporters while making choices about their life, without jeopardizing their self-determination. The bill also requires that alternatives to conservatorship are included for consideration in a petition for conservatorship, and requires courts to provide conservatees with information regarding the rights that they retain. Under AB 1663, courts are allowed to terminate a conservatorship without a hearing if both the conservatee and conservator agree to termination.

State law allows the courts to appoint a conservator for an adult when a third party such as law enforcement or Adult Protective Services is concerned about the health, safety or welfare of a person and there has been a comprehensive review of the individual’s circumstances. Information about recent actions by the California Department of Developmental Services or DDS to support individuals conserved by DDS can be found here.

Governor Newsom also signed AB 1195 by Assemblymember Cristina Garcia (D-Bell Gardens) which facilitates the hiring of people with disabilities within state government through the Limited Examination and Appointment Program or LEAP.

State To Crack Down on the Sale of Stolen Goods Online

SACRAMENTO — With online marketplaces selling stolen merchandise, Governor Gavin Newsom Sept. 30 signed legislation to strengthen transparency rules for high-volume, third-party sellers and provide greater tools for law enforcement to identify stolen items, often taken from doorsteps or shoplifted at retail stores. 

Both SB 301 by state Senator Nancy Skinner (D-Berkeley) and AB 1700 by Assemblymember Brian Maienschein (D-San Diego) work to address the online sale of stolen merchandise. SB 301 calls for online marketplaces to require high-volume third-party sellers to provide greater information to protect consumers. These requirements include contact and bank account information, as well as a seller’s physical address. AB 1700 directs the Attorney General’s Office to dedicate a section of its website for individuals to report items found on online marketplaces, identified as possible stolen goods. The attorney general will share this information with local law enforcement agencies. The bill will also require online marketplaces to display a link to the attorney general’s webpage. 

The Governor also signed AB 2294 by Assemblymember Reginald Byron Jones-Sawyer Sr. (D-Los Angeles), which gives law enforcement the ability to keep in custody individuals suspected of organized retail theft. Under the current process, an individual arrested for a misdemeanor is typically released with a written notice or citation. This bill will allow for law enforcement to keep in custody a person arrested for a misdemeanor if they have been convicted of theft from a store in the last six-months, or if there is probable cause that the individual is guilty of participating in organized retail theft. 

Details: http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov.